That sounds very cute
by thorn garmadon
Summary: An AU where instead of having crazy adventures as ninja, the gang has crazy adventures as employees in a Petstore, specifically, Spinjitzu's animal shop! Kai and Nya apply for jobs at the shop after their parents' tragic deaths, and discover all sorts of wacky adventures involving hermit crabs, loose snakes, and a large boa that escapes its box a day before its owner arrives!
1. Chapter 1

Bubba: If you follow me on Tumblr or Deviantart, you would know I'm writing an AU about the ninja working at a petstore! I don't really think I should be writing another story, but I can't help myself. I'll try to be good with updating if you want more, I promise! And the reason for the title is bcause I told my friend Becca about my idea and she replied 'That sounds very cute'. I'm just a little dweeb, aren't I? Sorry, enough rambling.

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That sounds very cute: Chapter 1

"Come on Kai!" Nya shouted, "There's a store that's hiring! We could both finally get jobs!"

"Why do we need to?"

"Mom and Dad died, and we're not gonna live off of their money forever. We need to work!"

"A pet store?"

"Yeah! Spinjitzu's animal shop! You know, where we got Flame?" She was referring to Kai's iguana, Flame. He had gotten the creature as a present one day. His red eyes looked like fire, so that was the one he picked. Nya didn't have a pet, but Flame had come to be their shared possession.

They grabbed their coats, made sure Flame had food, and left to go to Spinjitzu's animal shop.

"You two seem perfect, I see something special inside of the both of you. You're both hired!"

The job interview had gone well with the old man who owned and ran the place, and they each got a job. The shop was owned by a man named Wu, and he had a very long beard and strange looking clothing. He also seemed to always be carrying a tea pot.

The store was element themed. Ice, fire, earth, and lightning. The fish and aquatic pets were ice, puppies and mammals were earth, reptiles were fire, and birds were lightning. Supplies went into the lightning category as well, and food went into the earth category.

Strangely enough, there were only three other employes. The youngest was Cole Brookstone, he was 14. He managed the earth sections of the store. He had a little hamster on his head, which he told them was Rocky. He seemed a little too young to be working, but when Kai pointed that out, he told him to shut up.

Then there was Jay Walker, and he seemed like a too-energetic and happy go lucky guy who was 16, just old enough to be on his own. He basically told his life story in less than a minute, and said he had come to the city to be an inventor, and did that on his spare time. A little parakeet was on his shoulder, which he told them was Wisp.

The last one was Zane Julien, and he ran the ice section. He didn't seem to have any emotions and he was holding a little turtle that had a blue sweater on with a big snowflake on it. He introduced the turtle as Shard. Nya commented that the turtle's sweater was very cute and he seemed happy about that.

Zane handed them their new uniforms, and Kai's made it obvious he worked in the fire part of the store. Cole pointed out that this meant he was in charge of the fire extinguisher since that's where it was. Nya's uniform was red and similar to Kai's, but since they didn't need anyone else in the catergories, she was assigned to the register and to help customers. Also she would be the grooming service, which took place on weekends when the other part of the store was closed. This meant she would be paid a little bit more than the boys, and it wouldn't be certain how much depending on how many owners brought their pets for grooming.

"You guys didn't bring a pet?" Jay gave them a look.

"We were supposed to?"

"Yeah! That's kind of the thing! All the employees must have a pet!"

"I guess we could bring in Flame tomorrow... But we only have one pet."

"Go ask Mr. Wu for a pet! That's how we got ours! He gave us all a pet since Cole had his hamster when he applied. Without him I wouldn't have Wisp and would never have been able to create my tweet-lifier!"

"Your what?" Kai gave him a look this time. Jay held his finger to his bird and the parakeet stepped on. He held out the bird, which proudly showed off the device on his little beak. It tweeted, and the sound was much louder than all the other birds in the store.

"When I got him he could hardly tweet at all! Now he's the loudest little chirped in the whole shop! That's how we became best friends!" Jay said proudly, as proud as his little bird was of his chirp.

Kai asked Jay, "What's with Zane? He's weird."

"I dunno, we're working on it though!"

Nya rolled her eyes, "So where can I find Mr. Wu?"

"He's in his office! Or watching us, he's always watching, to make sure we're doing good!"

Nya went off and a few minutes later she came back with a tiny hermit crab. "He said there was an extra one so I got this little guy! Kai look at him, he's so cute!"

"That is ugly."

"Kai! He's adorable, shut up!" She shoved him.


	2. Chapter 2

Bubba: It made me so ridiculously happy to see all your kind and wonderful reviews! I will try to respond to them whenever I get them because I just love all the love I'm getting! I hope this chapter meets your expectations of cuteness with a hermit crab overload and references!

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Nya decided to name her hermit crab Emmet because his shell was painted to look like a construction worker with a red rectangle on the back for some reason. Emmet was always really happy and loved to scuttle around the countertop as Nya worked and he liked to be pat on the shell by the customers. Kai had brought in Flame and Flame got to ride around on his shoulders and sometimes stood, holding onto Kai's spiky hair.

"Hey guys, have you seen Samukai anywhere?" Zane asked, noticing the grumpy little critter was not where he was supposed to be when he went to feed him,

They had only been working there for two weeks and Nya and Kai grimaced at the mention of the large grouchy hermit crab that no one would buy. He was kept separately from all the other hermit crabs because he would attack them and try to steal their shells even though they were way too small for him. After finding six shell-less hermit crabs in an hour one day, he had been removed. The traumatized hermit crabs were given their shells and a little bit of extra vitamins in their water so they would recover better.

Yet Samukai kept escaping his little tank and finding his way around the shop, terrorizing the customers and attacking any other of the animals he could.

And now he was loose again for the eighth time that week and it was only Thursday.

"WE HAVE TO FIND HIM BEFORE IT'S OPENING TIME!" Jay shouted. Suddenly, Cole cried out, pulling his leg up, "He got me!"

"Get him!" Kai yelled. Zane jumped to catch the crab, but Samukai was fast and scuttled away before Zane could grab him. The hermit crab raced down the aisle as fast as his little legs could carry him and his skull painted shell.

Jay ran after him, reaching down only for Samukai to turn suddenly, just in time for Jay to crash into a display of dog toys, his parakeet flying away just in time to avoid being crushed.

"I'm down!" Only Kai was left. He looked for the hermit crab, spotted him and walked slowly towards him, hoping he wouldn't be seen. The hermit kept scuttling down, turning towards the directions of the doors.

"He's trying to escape the shop!"

"YOU'RE OUR LAST HOPE, KAI, YOU MUST CATCH HIM!" Zane shouted to him. Of course, Kai stumbled and fell, crashing into the tarantula tank. The lid popped open and the big spiders crawled out, falling onto him. He held back a scream. They normally didn't bite anyone unless startled. He gently brushed them off and then put them back into their tank, closing and latching the lid tightly shut.

"Well well well, what do we have here?" A deep voice rang out with a soft laugh following. The four looked up to see a man standing near the entrance. He knelt down, and picked up the critter, who nestled in his hand.

Mr. Wu was standing next to him. He looked at the hermit crab and shook his head. Even he disliked the grumpy creature. Although the creature looked so lonely in his cage, so he felt a bit bad for him as well.

"How... How did you...?"

"Samukai's a trouble maker, but he's my favorite whenever I come around to look at this pitiful shop I'm giving money to. Though he's a traitor and hates me, I must add."

Mr. Wu introduced the man to them, "This is my brother, and co-owner of the shop, Garmadon."

Garmadon didn't seem please with the employees, "Pretty soon I'll stop supplying money to this place and then it will be a matter of time before it shuts down. Then I'll get the four golden keys to this place and I'll sell it off and get rid of all the animals in-AGH!" He frowned as Samukai pinched his ear. The hermit crab had crawled up his arm as he was talking. He pulled off the grouchy critter and threw him. Cole dived and caught him before he could hit the floor and die, "Got him!"


	3. Chapter 3

Bubba: an early update! Because I'm home sick with a headache and fever,and fanfiction likes me again! I'm glad you guys got the Lego movie reference~ yet no one got the spider reference. And now to let my reptile food knowledge flow.

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Everyone stared at Cole. He smiled sheepishly, "Heh... Well I couldn't let him die, could I?" The only chance they had to get rid of the grumpy nuisance and Cole just _had_ to save the little thing's life. Garmadon left with a scowl, still greatly displeased with all of them.

"This shop is a waste of money." He growled as the door closed behind him.

Mr. Wu sighed, "Now that my brother is gone, and Samukai is under control, it is time to open the shop."

"Yeah!" Opening the shop was fun. Each of them had a golden key, and it took the four keys to open the doors. Wu had an extra key, probably how Garmadon had been let in. Each of them stuck their keys in the keyholes and turned all at once. The doors unlocked and Cole flipped the closed sign to Open.

Weekdays were always kind of slow in the mornings, so they just made sure everything was in order as Kai swept the floors. It wouldn't be until three o' clock when people would really start coming in near rush hour.

A few adults came in early every few days to get pet food, and they were directed to the Earth section of the store, and one to Kai for live reptile food. He didn't like touching the crickets and flies that much, but if he wanted to get paid and not get hit by Mr. Wu's cane, then he had to touch them.

This person apparently had a lot of reptiles, and he had to touch a TON of crickets, almost a hundred of them. Normally people only bought about 25 when they came. And then they needed flies, which Kai despised because it was hard to get them without them escaping. He had mastered it by getting one fly at a time, but this took a long time and the customer was getting impatient. Then the easy part was getting the boxes of mealworms and waxworms. They came in little round containers. He would have been fine touching the waxworms, they were soft and squishy and they didn't bite.

He would rather touch those all day than crickets and flies.

"So what are these for?" He had been told to try to be nice to the customers.

"My wife's pets. While she's at work or away I have to take care of all her lizards and frogs and the kids."

"Cool." Flame was staring at the crickets. He wouldn't eat them, though. Iguanas ate fruits and vegetables. He probably just found them fascinating.

Those customers left after buying their things and Zane announced once again around 2:30 that Samukai had escaped. They all groaned and Cole grabbed a net, "I'm so done getting pinched by that thing!" He went over where Samukai was scuttling away towards the rest of the hermit crabs and scooped him up.

The crab was not pleased with this and clawed at the net, trying to cut free. Cole plopped him back in his tank and was just about to close it when a girl wearing a shirt with Legos on it smashed into him, staring at Samukai with wide eyes.

"He's so cute I want him!"

Cole told her, "He's mean and evil and grumpy, trust me, you do not want him. He pinches."

"I have a dollar and I want him, he sounds so cute! I'd let him pinch me all he wants, I want him."

Kai made a slit neck motion when Cole went to try and persuade the girl she did not want Samukai. He rolled his eyes and said in defeat, "I'll get a box and you can have him."

"Yes!"

Zane went to where the boxes were in his part of the store because he was in charge of hermit crabs, and tossed one to Cole. The black-haired boy grabbed Samukai by the shell and quickly plopped him in. He closed it and handed it to the brunette girl.

"He's all yours."

Once she left, taking the grouchy hermit crab with her, Jay fell to his knees, shouting, "HE'S FINALLY GONE, YESSSSSSS! He's finally goooooone..." He started sobbing. "Finally...gone..." Kai patted his back.


End file.
